Richardson International, regarded by some as Canada's answer to Cargill, has unveiled a second expansion in grain terminals in two months, as handlers jockey for position ahead of the market's deregulation.

Richardson - Canada's largest privately-held agribusiness, if a far smaller enterprise than Cargill, which holds the same position in the US - purchased Great Northern Grain's handling site in Alberta's Peace River region, the fourth acquisition in the area in two years.

The deal will add 17,300 tonnes of storage capacity to the Richardson network, already the country's second largest, with the group unveiling plans to add a further 14,000 tonnes to the site.

The purchase also includes wheat and canola cleaning facilities, an 8,400-square-foot warehouse for storing seed and agrichemicals.

And it comes amid preparations by crop giants to compete for share of barley, durum and wheat markets, after the Canadian Wheat Board is in August stripped of its marketing monopoly in Western Canada over the grains.

'Key production area'

"The Nampa facility will now give us a presence in both the eastern and western parts of the [Peace River] region… a key production area in Western Canada," Darwin Sobkow, vice-president of Richardson agribusiness operations, said.

It follows the group's announcement a month ago that it was in Saskatchewan - another province in Western Canada, a region responsible for roughly 90% of the county's wheat production – to double to 24,000 tonnes grain storage capacity at its Estevan facility.

The extent of the opportunity presented by Canada's grain market liberalisation is such that rival crop handler Viterra believes it alone will gain some $40m-50m a year in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) from the shake-up – an estimate viewed as conservative by analysts.

Other groups targeting the market are believed to include Bunge and Cargill.

Futures traded

Meanwhile, the Ice futures exchange on Monday announced the first trades, by Richardson, of durum and milling wheat contracts also launched to exploit the close of the CWB's monopoly.

On Tuesday, the exchange traded 60 contracts in barley, 20 in durum and 12 in milling wheat.

For the better-established canola contract, the figure was 25,010.